Many travellers have heard of Lago Atitlan in Guatemala, but the largest lake in Guatemala is the less visited Lago de Isabel, at the outlet of which lies the small harbour town of Rio Dulce.  The Rio Dulce river then flows about 40 kilometres out to the town of Livingston and the Caribbean Sea.

We arrived at Rio Dulce and pulled into Bruno’s, a restaurant/hotel that allows overlanders to camp in the parking lot.  Derek immediately recognized the van of Michelle and Derek, a couple from South Dakota that we had met at Chichen Itza in Mexico. They came back to the parking lot later in the day with another couple they had met (who live on Sydney Island off of Vancouver Island during the summers and travel in the winters). We caught up on where we had been, where we were heading, and talked with the Canadian couple about their off-grid home on Sydney Island.

We hung out for a day in Rio Dulce, Derek got a hair cut and we caught up on some chores. Then we hung out another day, visited The Shack next door for some beer and snacks, where we once again ran into the couple from Sydney Island and spent quite a while socializing before dinner….really interesting people. One of the things to do in Rio Dulce is to book a boat tour down the river to Livingston which is on the Caribbean coast. We set this up for the next morning and later found out Michelle and Derek were hoping to do the same and it was decided that we would share a boat.

We headed out on the water at 8am. There are dozens of little harbours, restaurants, bars, cabins and eco-lodges along the shores of the Rio Dulce. We got out onto the river and cruised along to our first stop, a manatee reserve, which ended up being closed for board walk repairs…not a big deal, as manatees are very shy so we were not expecting to see one any way.

On to our second stop, a natural hot spring that feeds into the river. A small breakwater was built out from the river bank and partially contains the hot water. It is unlike any hot spring I have ever been in, as the water on top was very hot and emerged in surges to mix with colder river water below. We soaked in the spring for 15 or 20 minutes before continuing on our boat tour.

The shores of the river were covered in jungle.  Occasionally a small area would be cut out of the jungle for an eco-lodge or for a remote Guatemalan dwelling.  There were birds everywhere.  At one point cruised in a gorge between high white cliffs overhung with every shade of green.

 

 

Next stop was the town of Livingston, accessible only by boat.  Livingston is known for its Garifuna population, who, according to our guide book, are descendents of Africans who were brought to the Caribbean as slaves but who later revolted and spread to the island of Roatan in Honduras and to the coast of Belize to Nicaragua. They inter-married with the Carib Indians, the Maya and shipwrecked sailors and developed a distinct culture and language of their own.

We strolled up the main street in town, tourist shops on both sides of the streets, with no real plan….then a Garifuna man, in his late 60’s but looking much younger, started talking to Derek and I, asking us why we had come to visit Livingston. In retrospect, I think he was waiting for us to say “To see the Garifuna culture!”, but instead I told him that we were staying in Rio Dulce and wanted to take a ride down the river. He began to tell us how a lot of people come there to see the Garifuna, but asked us to look around. All of the shops were being run by the Maya people, the restaurants were run by the Maya, and there were only a few Garifuna people to be seen in the area.

“Do you want to see the real Garifuna part of town?” he asked. Before we had a chance to reply we were being ushered down a road towards the ocean. Along the way he spoke of the challenges of the Garifuna, how they lived in poverty, were hit very hard by hurricanes in the past, how they cannot compete with the cheaper mainland souvenirs offered in the Maya stores, and about how they were losing their culture. He introduced himself as Philip Flores, a leader of the local Garifuna people, and showed us a photocopy from a page in a Lonely Planet guide book that mentioned him in the section on Livingston.

We walked with him along the shore of the Caribbean Sea, further and further away from the main tourist street. Then back inland into the back streets of Livingston where most of the Garifuna people live, and indeed, it did look poor. He told us that Jerry Garcia, from the band The Greatful Dead, used to hang out in Livingston from time to time and that as Jerry did not speak Spanish, he and the Belizean educated, english speaking Philip had become friends. Jerry and another musician whose name I cannot remember and didn’t recognize at the time, set up a scholarship fund for people in the villages so they could return with their educations and help their communities. As a result, Philip went to university in Chicago. In total 27 residents of Livingston were able to go to university in the United States, unfortunately, only 3 returned to Livingston to help out their people.

Philip showed us a building which is the location of a food program that he runs to feed the local children.  He spoke often of the Maya and of how they had taken over the businesses in the area, and it was obvious that he disliked the Maya people.  “We were here first!”, he said.  Not without sympathy for the challenges his community faces, I also still thought, “Yeah, well, except that the Maya have been in Guatemala for, what, at least 3 or 4 thousand years?” but decided to keep this to myself.

Eventually we were led back to the main tourist street, where Philip asked for a donation for his food program. Seemed like a worthy cause, so we made a small donation.

We met up again with Michelle and Derek who had left the “tour” part way through, had some lunch, and made our way back to the docks for our boat ride home. The wind had picked up and the boat ride back was a bit choppier than the ride out. Just before returning us to Bruno’s, we floated past Castillo de San Filipe de Lara, a fort built in the late 1500’s by the Spanish to protect important inland waterways from the dangers of coastal piracy.

It had been a fun day, although Livingston, even with our semi-forced, guided tour of the “real Livingston”, was a bit of a disappointment.   I agree with Philip that the town is not the Garifuna enclave that it is hyped up to be, and I cannot imagine spending more than a few hours there.  The river however was beautiful and a boat ride on a hot day is never a bad idea.

Keep the volume low for this video….loud engine.